S&P 500 rises to a record close Friday, posts third straight winning week

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose to fresh records on Friday after November jobs data came in slightly better than expected, but not so hot as to deter the Federal Reserve from cutting rates again later this month.

The broad market S&P 500 climbed 0.25% to 6,090.27. Tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.81% to 19,859.77, bolstered by gains in Tesla, Meta Platforms and Amazon. Both indexes touched new all-time highs during the session and closed at records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 123.19 points, or 0.28%, to close at 44,642.52.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq went on to their third straight positive week as well, rising 0.96% and 3.34%, respectively. The Dow slipped 0.6% during the period.

The November labor report, released Friday morning, revealed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 227,000 last month, above the Dow Jones estimate of 214,000 and marking a huge hike from October’s upwardly revised gain of 36,000. The unemployment rate nudged up to 4.2%, as expected.

Following the not-too-hot, not-too-cold unemployment data, fed funds futures trading data reflected an 85% likelihood of another rate cut in two weeks to 85%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

“You’re seeing a labor market that is not weak but is definitely softening, and that is more than anything else what is giving traders more confidence in the 25 basis-point rate cut here at the upcoming meeting,” said Luke O’Neill, portfolio manager at Catalyst Funds.

“It’s not gangbusters, but we’re doing reasonably solid from an economic perspective and yet there is enough of a softening on the labor side to give plenty of air cover for the Fed to lower rates here,” he said.

Given the continued strength of the U.S. economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has previously said that policymakers do not need to be “in a hurry to lower rates.”